Being a leader is more than standing out in a public or just making yourself noticeable. Being a leader means you hold some traits that can take the company to the next level. You always have creative ideas, have the ability to think outside the box, and you know how to communicate efficiently with people.
If you are born with these characteristics, you still have room to improve yourself. And, what will be the better option than a book to learn and grow?
There are some books that are excellent to be displayed on the bookshelf in your office. And, then there are others that are books that have the worth of reading them.
There is no second thought in it that books improve the standard of living. If you are looking to make an impression and become one of the great leaders, then you are required to start reading.
Here we have compiled some of the best leadership books that not only become the embellishment of your bookshelf but, these books deserve to be read and make most of them.
1. On Becoming a Leader, by Warren Bennis
Warren Bennis has strongly argued that leaders are not born, they are created. Searching into the characteristics that determine leadership, the people who represent it, and the approaches that anyone can use to obtain it, Bennis’s outstanding book On Becoming a Leader has managed to serve as a source of clearing perspective for infinite readers.
2. Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
Although Marcus Aurelius was writing this book for himself, this book possesses a great message of living a better life. By eliminating the excess, Aurelius reveals to us all how to stand firm in front of the distractions to keep our principles. Rooted in Stoic philosophy, Meditations is useful guidance for managing your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to eliminate the anxiety from your life.
3. Wooden on Leadership, by John Wooden & Steve Jamison
Wooden on Leadership describes the creative, emotional, and physical characteristics which are necessary for creating a winning company. It also explains to us how to grow the ability, courage, and aggressive fire to “be at your best when your best is needed” and train your organization to do the same.
4. The Truth About Leadership, by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Some things will always work effectively in leadership and that is belief, reliability, and integrity are among those things. Kouzes and Posner unveil 30 years of research that back these and other important principles.
5. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, by James Kouzes & Barry Posner
The Leadership Challenge is about how leaders prepare others to get amazing things accomplished inside companies and firms. The authors show their Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, which when executed effectively, enable leaders to fill the gap of just getting things finished and making excellent things happen.
6. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
The bestselling writer of Leaders Eat Last, the Start with Why portraits that people will not actually purchase a product, service, movement, or idea until they know WHY behind it. Carrying on an extensive variety of real-life tales, Sinek makes a notion of what it truly requires to lead and motivate.
7. Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh
As CEO of Zappo, Tony Hsieh established a massively flourishing business by doing what everyone else talks about like keeping the customer priority and hiring the best people. Helping customers and companies and making it culture is the main focus. As a consequence employees and customers were pleased and content. Hsieh was able to end regular corporate leadership and achieve happiness and profit.
8. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Marcus Buckingham
In this longtime management bestseller book, Marcus Buckingham manifests the extraordinary findings of Gallup’s in-depth study of more than 80,000 managers. The data shows that instead of varying experiences and techniques, great managers share one basic characteristic and that is, they do not hesitate to crush business rules. First, in Break All the Rules, you will find important reviews and career lessons for managers at all levels and learn how to use them to your particular circumstances.
9. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins
Some companies succeed, but most fail. Jim Collins went through thousands of articles and interview transcripts to find out why specifically that happens. Then he compiled it all into this book to reveal to you what features you will require to create a great company.
10. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, by Daniel Goleman
Emotional Intelligence is a great book that redefined what it purports to be smart. Everyone knows that a higher IQ is not a guarantee of prosperity, happiness, or power, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only speculate why. Goleman’s analysis from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience suggests shocking new insight into our “two minds”, the rational and the emotional, and how mutually they develop our success in relationships, in work, and even our physical well-being.
Related: 40 Entrepreneur Books That Will Be the Best Guidance for You in the Venture of Entrepreneurship
11. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven R. Covey
Seven Habits is a very important lesson in leadership and success. By developing your mindset to adopt an alternative perspective, Covey let you walk through the self-mastery Paradigm Shift. This method is split down into Independence, Interdependence, and Continual Improvement, resulting in significant and constant growth.
12. Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
If Abe Lincoln can consolidate his cabinet and the country around ending slavery amidst war, you can also settle conflicting personalities in your business. Fitting people of different ideas into a team or group is an excellent leadership quality. In Team of Rivals Kearns Goodwin relates the story of how Lincoln surrounded himself with the best people, in spite of their disagreements. He was humble and unafraid to be confronted, these two features will help every leader.
13. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink
Most people think that the best way to motivate is with incentives like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That is a misconception, says writer Daniel Pink. In the new system of work, Pink explains in Drive is built on leaders discovering innovative and productive ways to hit deep-seated desires: the need to be independent in our work, to get better at what we like to do, and to discover a higher meaning in life.
14. Tribes, by Seth Godin
From Godin’s blog to his books and everything within that, Godin is sharing a winning equation for walking outside of the status quo to do important work. It is this sort of work that will encourage others to support, help you get noticed, and leave a legacy behind long after you are gone.
15. Leading Change, by John Kotter
Leading Change features a legendary 8-step process of Kotter for managing money that has become helpful to leaders and companies all around the world. A practical resource for leaders and managers charged with making change initiatives work.
16. Best on Teamwork: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni
Patrick Lencioni suggests that it is the achievement of a company as a whole, not just of the leader, that creates results. But every company requires a great leader, and this begins with getting the most out of every team member. Lencioni states this starts with a productive battle and, above all, trust. “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” is a story about circumstances that a leader has faced and how those circumstances were dealt with, concluded with morals to each story segment.
17. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, by Eric Ries
This entrepreneurial classic is a must-read for anyone considering going into business for themselves. The Lean Startup offers a methodology that directs you on discovering what consumers need as quickly as possible and then using scientific experimentation to confirm that you are making growth. Ries suggests starting as early and reasonably as possible, so you do not spend time and money getting into the marketplace.
18. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
Everyone wants to feel valued. In Win Friends Carnegie explains to you how to use that in your support to make people admire you and win people over. It is a book about how to communicate and socialize with people in a significant way. It all comes down to showing interest in the people you socialize with and the work that they are doing. If you make that link you will have gained a friend.
19. Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown
Being weak does not have to be a flaw. Fear and shame should not preclude us from challenging ourselves to do big things. Rather, Brown shows us that it is most essential to show up, to attempt, and to fail. Because coming up small is better than never having attempted at all.
20. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, by John C. Maxwell
Maxwell is one of the renowned world leadership specialists, has authored dozens of books writing this kind of topic that have sold millions of copies. In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, each of the laws has its own section that when read, learned, and put into work, help to lead readers toward setting direction, aligning people, inspiring and motivating – all with the ultimate purpose of producing a leader that people want to follow.
21. The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
Anything you design is going to need one heck of a battle: that’s the war of art. Every single individual in the world who has written a book, published an article, began a business, or created “art” has been scared out of their mind. Procrastination, anxiety, and self-doubt hit everyone. The only way to defeat them is to make stuff and show it to the world.
22. The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Michael Watkins
In this book, The First 90 Days, the professor of Harvard Business School Michael Watkins shows a road map for taking charge in the first 90 days of a new management position. Avoid regular new-leader traps, guard important early wins, and establish yourself in your new position.
23. The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
In this book by Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen lays out the way to “disruptive innovation.” This, as defined by Christensen, needs to reject the requirements of the customer right now in support of adopting new techniques and technologies that will match their requirements in the future. Early adopters and innovators get ahead; all of the others fall behind.
24. The One Minute Manager, by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson
For almost more than a decade, The One Minute Manager has served millions to achieve more prosperous professional and personal lives. As compelling today as it was when it was first released more than thirty years ago, this classic story of a young man looking for an efficient manager is as important and useful as ever.
25. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, by Bill Georg:
Former Medtronic CEO Bill George gives a complete program for leadership success and explains how to build your own personal leadership improvement plan. Based on personal interviews with 125 top leaders such as Charles Schwab, Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Anne Mulcahy (Xerox), True North reveals how anyone who follows their internal boundary can become a trustworthy leader.
26. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman:
Nobel Prize winner Kahnemann takes us on a groundbreaking journey of the mind, exploring the two systems that transform the way we think. He calls System 1 (quick, intuitive, emotional) and System 2 (slow, deliberative, reasonable) and how the interaction between them shape our perceptions and choices. At nearly 500 pages in length, Thinking, Fast and Slow is not meant to be a quick read, it is meant to be enjoyed.
There is no doubt that books play a very vital role in our lives, and these sorts of leadership books are must in our bookshelves that encourage us and become the reason for positive change in life.
We are sure these books will be helpful for you in your entrepreneurship venture.